1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to postal, shipping and lookup services and electronic commerce.
2. Description of the Related Art
Under the related art, a sender of a letter or package by postal mail must address the item with a physical address, i.e., name, street or P.O. Box, city, state and zip code. This requirement is not ideal in that people often move from one dwelling or office to another, and at least a few people, particularly those with whom correspondence is rare, are not made aware of the new physical address. Moreover, memorizing all the details of a physical address is not easy, and the necessity of carrying, maintaining and referring to an address book is not convenient.
What is needed, therefore, is a more convenient system for addressing letters and packages.
Under the related art, user-to-user e-commerce transactions, as in the case of Internet auctions, suffer from high transaction costs that reduce the attractiveness of this sales avenue for the occasional seller. Specifically, even if one sells a very cheap item, such as a five-dollar book, one must ship the item by some mechanism that provides proof of shipping in order to protect oneself from claims that the item was never shipped. Such proof requires use of a private carrier, which is very expensive, or a trip to the post office, which is typically very time-consuming. Under either option, the time and expense involved negates any realistic profit to be made from a five-dollar sale.
What is needed, therefore, is a more efficient system for conducting user-to-user e-commerce.
Under the related art, massive “over-shipping” occurs in user-to-user transactions. For example, a seller in Los Angeles offers a used copy of Catch-22 for sale by Internet auction. Sometime later, an unrelated seller in New York also offers a used copy of Catch-22. A buyer bids on and wins the first auction. The seller in Los Angeles dutifully ships a used copy of Catch-22 a distance of 3000 miles, while an essentially identical item is available two miles away from the buyer. This kind of over-shipping is extremely wasteful of environmental resources, namely, fuel.
What is needed, therefore, is a way to prevent over shipping in user-to-user transactions.